from http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/
County supervisors urged to step up oversight of porn industry
September 1, 2009 | 5:22 pm
Saying that the Los Angeles County Public Health Department has minimized sexually transmitted diseases and HIV cases in the porn industry, AIDS activists and former adult film workers on Tuesday urged county supervisors to step up oversight of the industry.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation has already filed a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleging that the county has failed to prevent the spread of disease in the industry. The organization asked the court to require the county to enforce regulations mandating condom use in adult film productions. The county answered the court petition by suggesting that the public need is “minimal,” because there are only 1,200 adult film performers – less than .01% of the population.
“Would the county of L.A. say the same thing about 1,200 firemen or restaurant workers or bankers?” asked Jessie Gruttadauria, director of public affairs for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “How many performers in this multibillion-dollar industry in our backyard have to get sick before this becomes a public need?”
In June, an adult film actress tested positive for HIV. Also, county health officials released data that 18 HIV cases and more than 3,700 cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis have been reported since 2004 by the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, a San Fernando Valley-based clinic. Clinic officials said the HIV cases did not involve active performers. County officials declined to provide any details about those cases and said little investigation was done. County public health officials have declined several requests for interviews.
Prior to Tuesday’s meeting, nearly 200 letters had been sent to Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, asking him to look into the issue and demand action from the county public health department.
At the meeting, Yaroslavsky called the health of adult film workers a “legitimate issue.”
“If there’s something we can do, we’re going to find a way to do it,” he said. Yaroslavsky said he has asked the public health department for a report on the matter and that it should be completed within two weeks.
— Kimi Yoshino
What about the prevalence of herpes in the adult biz? An honest question because I genuinely don’t know. I’ve heard that like 90% of performers have herpes. Is that true? Does herpes kind of take a backseat because it’s not life threatening, there’s no cure, and everybody has it anyway? When newbies enter porn do they just accept the fact they’re going to get herpes and other STDs?
I think I’d rather not get laid then have my genitals blow up like a baboon’s butt, but that’s just me.
Well, there are some studies that link Herpes to Alzheimer (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7770680.stm)
and herpes and Glioblastoma (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=does-herpes-cause-brain-cancer).
Czech PW Leah DeMae died from that, and well, recently, a Kennedy.
Herpes might not be as harmless as some people think.
80 percnet of the industy has Herpes too from what I heard( i would guess prob more), they could hopefully use protection for the future to lessen that too.
Sorry to give you the bad news, folks, but their is no protection from herpes when it’s active. Condoms are useless, since the virus is transmitted skin to skin and you can get it just as easily from fingers, lips and other body parts as from genitalia. It can also hang around just above the ring of a condom, so contact can still occur even when condoms are used.
AIM does offer herpes testing on request for those who want to know their own status, but its prevalence in the general population and the impracticality of trying to prevent transmission in any body-contact situation make the expense for this test somewhat difficult to justify.
According to the CDC, about 70% of the adult population in the U.S. would test positive for either herpes type 1 (oral) or herpes type 2 (genital) or both, with the former being the more common. I would guess – and it’s just a guess – that adult performers would have similar percentages to those of the rest of the population.
The only good news is that there is now very effective suppressive drug therapy for strains. Acyclovir or Valtrex, taken on a daily basis, are extremely effective at preventing outbreaks. Though it is possible to transmit herpes in the prodromal stage (i.e. before an outbreak becomes visible), these drugs lower that risk beyond the range of statistical probability. When outbreaks do occur, anti-viral drugs shorten their duration and severity.
Performers who know they have herpes should be on suppressive therapy (and certainly many are), but this really comes down to personal responsibility. Performers must not work when their cases are active, which is the only phase where transmission risk is extremely high.
Sadly, I am aware of performers being less than honest about this, claiming that suspect red spots in critical areas were “road rash” from working a lot of scenes or whatever. Directors, production managers and other performers need to call that shit out.
Anyone who shows up on a set with visible evidence of any kind of genital injury or infection should be replaced, period.
Unlike other STIs, active herpes are usually visible, and there’s simply no excuse for potentially exposing someone who might not be infected to a virus that’s easily detected, easily passed on and hangs around longer than a suitcase pimp.